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STATE TRIALS, in English law, a name which primarily denotes all trials relating to offences against the state, but in practice is often used of cases illustrative of the law relating to state officers or of international or constitutional law. The first collection of accounts of state trials was published in 1719 in four volumes. Although without an editor's name, it appears that Thomas Salmon (1679–1767), an historical and geographical writer, was responsible for the collection. A second edition, increased to six volumes, under the editorship of Sollom Emlyn (1697–1754), appeared in 1730. This edition contained a lengthy preface critically surveying the condition of English law at the time. A third edition appeared in 1742, in eight volumes, the seventh and eighth volumes having been added in 1835. Ninth and tenth volumes were added in 1766, and a fourth edition, comprising ten volumes, with the trials arranged chronologically, was published the same year. A fifth edition, originated by William Cobbett, but edited by Thomas Bayly Howell (1768–1815) and known as Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials, was published between 1809 and 1826. This edition is in thirty-three volumes; twenty-one of them, giving the more important state trials down to 1781, were edited by T. B. Howell, and the remaining volumes, bringing the trials down to 1820, by his son Thomas Jones Howell (d. 1858). A new series, under the direction of a parliamentary committee, was projected in 1885, with the object of bringing the trials down to a later date. Eight volumes were published in 1888–1898, bringing the work down to 1858. The first three of these were edited by Sir J. Macdonell, the remaining five by J. E. P. Wallis. Selections have also been edited by H. L. Stephen and others. The trials are invaluable not only for their reports of criminal cases, in which the whole course of criminal procedure and evidence may be traced, but for their historical information.

STATICS (from Gr. root -, stand, or cause to stand), the branch of mechanics which discusses the conditions of rest or equilibrium of forces (see ).

STATIONERY, a term embracing all the various articles sold by " stationers," who were originally booksellers having " stations " or stands in markets, near churches or other buildings for the sale of their goods (see for the further history of the word). The stationers were formed into a gild in 1403, the Livery Company not being incorporated till 1556. At the hall of the company in London, “Stationers' Hall,” is kept a book for the registration of copyrights (see ). The “Stationery Office” is a British government department which supplies stationery to parliament and the government offices and generally controls the printing required by them.

Under the name of stationery are now included all writing materials and implements, together with the numerous appliances of the desk and of mercantile and commercial offices.

The principal articles and operations of the stationery trade are dealt with under such headings as ; ; ; ; ; ; and.

STATIONS OF THE CROSS, a series of 14 pictures or images representing the closing scenes in the Passion of Christ, viz. (1) the condemnation by Pilate, (2) the reception of the cross, (3) Christ's first fall, (4) the meeting with His mother, (5) Simon of Cyrene carrying the cross, (6) Veronica wiping the face of Jesus, (7) the second fall, (8) the exhortation to the women of Jerusalem, (9) the third fall, (10) the stripping of the clothes, (n) the crucifixion, (12) the death, (13) the descent from the cross, (14) the burial. Sometimes a 15th—the finding of the cross by Helena—is added; on the other hand in the diocese of Vienna, the stations were at the end of the 18th century reduced to eleven. . They form a very popular item in Roman Catholic devotion. The representations are usually ranged round the church; sometimes they are found in the open air, especially on the ascent to some elevated church or shrine.

The devotion began among the Franciscans, who, as the guardians of the holy places in Jerusalem, sought by this means to enable Christians to make a pilgrimage at least in spirit. Pope Innocent XII. in 1694 declared that the indulgences granted for visiting Palestine might be gained by members of the order who, simply visiting the stations of the cross wherever represented, exercised a devout meditation as they passed from station to station. These indulgences were extended by Benedict XIII. in 1726 to all the faithful, and Clement XII. five years later granted the privilege to churches other than Franciscan, provided the stations were erected by a Franciscan. In 1857 the Roman Catholic bishops in England received faculties, renewed quinquenially, permitting them to erect the stations wkh the accompanying indulgences, and they often delegate this faculty to priests.

STATISTICS. The word " statistic " is derived from the Latin status, which, in the middle ages, had come to mean a " state " in the political sense. " Statistic," therefore, originally denoted inquiries into the condition of a state. Since the 18th century the denotation of the word has been extended, while at the same time its scope has become more definite, and may now be said, for all practical purposes, to be fixed.

History.—The origin of what is now known as “statistics” (Ger. die Statistik; Fr. la statistique; Ital. statistica) can only be referred to briefly here. As human societies became more and more highly organized, there can be no doubt that a very considerable body of official statistics must have come into existence, and been constantly used by statesmen, solely with a view to administration. The Romans were careful to obtain accurate information regarding the resources of the state, and they appear to have taken the census with a regularity which has hardly been surpassed in modern times.

Statistics, or rather the material for statistics, therefore existed at a very early period, but it was not until within the last three centuries that systematic use of the information available began to be made for purposes of investigation and not of mere administration. A volume compiled by Francesco Sansovino, entitled Del Governo et amministrazione di diversi regni et republiche, was printed in Venice and bears the date 1583. Other works of a similar kind were published towards the end of the 16th century in Italy and France. Works on state administration and finance continued to be published during the first half of the 17th century, and the tendency to employ figures, which were hardly used at all by Sansovino, became more marked, especially in England, where the facts connected with " bills of mortality " had begun to attract attention.

G. Achenwall is usually credited with being the first to use the word "statistics," but statistics, in the modern sense of the word, did not really come into existence until the publication (1761) by J. P. Sussmilch, a Prussian clergyman, of a work entitled Die göttliche Ordnung in den Veranderungen des menschlichen Geschlechts aus der Geburt, dem Tode, and der Fortpflanzung desselben erwiesen. In this book a systematic attempt was made to make use of a class of facts which up to that time had been regarded as belonging to "political arithmetic," under which description some of the most important problems of what modern writers term "vital statistics " had been studied, especially in England. Sussmilch had arrived at a perception of the advantage of studying what Quetelet subsequently termed the "laws of large numbers." He combined the method of "descriptive statistics" with that of the "political arithmeticians," who had confined themselves to investigations into the facts regarding